Frederick Blake Jr.

I’d like to thank the Premier. That sounded like a definite yes that this work will be completed. But we’ve had four months to ensure that this work is completed, and in the Mackenzie Delta the ground is starting to freeze. We are running out of time to build this parking lot. We’ll be lucky if we have another week or two before everything starts freezing up, the material. You know, that makes costs go up slightly. I’d like to see this work completed within the next week or two if the Premier can ensure that that happens.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year the hamlet council in Aklavik issued a notice to all public places in the community to provide safer parking areas to protect people and property. This is an urgent concern at Moose Kerr School.

As I told my colleagues in the House last week, Moose Kerr School can only offer parking on the road. This makes navigating the school property dangerous for students, teachers and visitors, not to mention more difficult for drivers.

The hamlet council has obtained a quote for the work needed to solve this problem. Costs are estimated at $27,000, but the budget of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, am happy to support this motion. The first time in my riding I have seen the difficulties people with disabilities face, you know, whether it’s in the winter, we have a lot of deep snow in our communities and no vehicles for people with wheelchairs to travel around in. Many times their family members take them in their vehicles. They have to pack them in, put their wheelchair away; a lot of struggles. We do have some families that use their own money that they’ve saved up to buy a vehicle that’s needed for their child or their family member. More has to be done...

Just so I’m very clear, will the Premier ensure that that $27,000 is provided to make sure this work is done?

m Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just in follow-up to my Member’s statement, I have some questions for the Premier. Will the Premier ensure the Department of Education, Culture and Employment meets with the Aklavik District Education Authority and Moose Kerr School to investigate this problem with parking and to find the funds needed?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m really glad to see, as I mentioned, the Building Canada Plan underway once again. I am a little disappointed it wasn’t in place for last season, but here we are today, the first year that this funding is starting up again. Lots has been done, about three-quarters completed, and hopefully we have time, if the weather cooperates, that this gets finished and we have a parking garage upgrades in Aklavik. Hopefully, we can have this done as soon as possible. Within the month would be great.

---Laughter

But also under Willow River, as I mentioned before, it’s really...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a few questions and comments. I guess with the project, it is really good to see this project going through my riding of Mackenzie Delta, a good portion of it. I know we had a number of people working on the project from both Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic and Aklavik, also a number from Inuvik as well. It is really what the region needed with infrastructure like this. This sort of work is new to us, to our region anyway. The area had to go through a lot of this wire that was put in place. We saw the process that was going to be taken at the opening but there...

It’s more of a comment. You know, over the years I’ve seen a lot of benefits that this program provides and I hope that it does continue to go on through the years. For example, in Aklavik the drainage that the community has done has actually helped during the spring. We’ve noticed less floods because of drainage, the drainage plan that they did. We still need a little assistance with the riprap and building up the roads there, but that’s something the community is still working on.

The other thing was in Fort McPherson, the hamlet that they built and they’re also building a new garage. It’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just speaking to the funding allocated to the communities, I am somewhat disappointed we’re going back to a needs base just because I’ve seen firsthand the process that we first started with this for the communities, which was great. I know the Minister did mention that some communities weren’t spending that money, but I’ll use a small community like Tsiigehtchic, for example. To build whether it’s a garage, with the funding that’s given, you have to save up for a number of years to actually have enough to build that piece of infrastructure. That’s what many of the...

My next question is: Why was the project on hold this summer for over a month? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.